︎ Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is a writer and editor based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. Her fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, C Mag, The Ex-Puritan, Fence, Mousse, and elsewhere, as well as in the chapbooks Mayonnaise and Drawings on Yellow Paper (with Katie Lyle). By day, she works as an editor at The Capilano Review. By night, she drafts suspended scenarios and propositions. The Longest Way to Eat a Melon, her debut collection of fictions, is forthcoming from Sarabande Books in 2025. She is at work on a novel and a long poem about belief.
Photo by Maegan Hill-Carroll.
Contact: jacquelynzross {at} gmail {dot} com
Agency: K2 Literary
Curriculum Vitae ︎
Instagram ︎
Facebook ︎
Twitter ︎
Photo by Maegan Hill-Carroll.
Contact: jacquelynzross {at} gmail {dot} com
Agency: K2 Literary
Curriculum Vitae ︎
Instagram ︎
Facebook ︎
Twitter ︎
Publications
Forthcoming June 2025
Sarabande Books
Pre-order direct from the publisher (US only) ︎
Pre-order from your nearest independent bookstore (US and Canada) ︎
A cheeky debut of short fictions exploring the pitfalls and minor triumphs of the creative process.
Equal parts melody and malaise, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon charts the activities of a cast of speakers who all grapple in their own ways with what it takes to conjure a self in the midst of discordance. A brain argues with a non-brain about how to remain productive from a place of exhaustion; two supernaturally inclined twins named Han are separated at birth; and an emerging artist paralyzed by possibility considers how best to transform a melon into a breakthrough work of art. Incorporating elements of fable, surrealism, satire, and art and cultural criticism, these stories have a playful peculiarity to them, an interweaving of self-deprecation and curiosity, of woe and hope, of absurdity and humanity. Reader, you will want to savor every bite.
Read "A Brief History of Feeling" from The Longest Way to Eat a Melon in BOMB ︎
Chapbooks
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Self-published in 2016 by Blank Cheque Press, a small press I ran out of my home/studio between Vancouver and Toronto from 2015-2020 (lately out of print)
Other Selected Writing
~ On Rochelle Goldberg’s Sun Moon StarsA review of Rachelle Goldberg’s show at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver for C Mag (forthcoming)
~ More-Than-Unpaid Work: On Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill’s M*****A review of Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill’s show at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver for Le Chauffage
~ Night Work
Selections from a new long-form project published in Asia Art Archive’s online journal Like a Fever
~ A Woman Suffering
Short story in the new issue of Echolocation Magazine, Toronto
~ baby voices
Poem written to accompany the group exhibition, Inside voices, please at nap projects, Vancouver
~ Five Cricket Songs (after Umico Niwa)
Poems written to accompany Umico Niwa’s exhibition, Neighbourly Pest, at Tilling, Montréal
~ soothsay
Exhibition text for Gabi Dao & geetha thurairajah at Centre Clark, Montréal
~ Elementary Brioche
Short story for Minority Vibration, a special issue of The Puritan, guest-edited by Sheung-King
~ from Fifty Times You Leave Your Lover
Poetic response to Mira Dayal’s artist book, Hair Biography, for the ee!
~ Laurie Kang: Story of the Gut
Catalogue essay to accompany the exhibition Unfixed: Laurie Kang and Chris Curreri at Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver
~ Napping Against Capitalism
Short story for the group exhibition The Pandemic is a Portal at SFU Galleries, Vancouver
~ The Perfect Crime
Fictional accompaniment to Erdem Taşdelen's public billboard project, Vicissitudes, at Mercer Union, Toronto
~ Cute, Good-Looking, Funny, Sweet
Essay on the kind of art that is suspiciously easy to digest for Mousse
~ Lizzie’s Laborufluvs
Short story for the exhibition Disputed Bodies at Trinity Square Video, Toronto
~ Four Poems
Light text accoutrements for Sorry, I’m Busy, an exhibition of Capricorn artists at Support Projects, London, Ontario
~ A Brief History of Feeling
Flash fiction for BOMB Magazine
~ "Wanted: Abject Dreamers for New Study of the Inner Ear $15/hr"
A Kijiji ad for please teach me how to swim, an online project organized by Untitled Art Society, Calgary
~ The Picture Files
Flash fiction for the virtual artist project Anna Hawkins: Fall Fell Felt hosted by Untitled Art Society, Calgary
~ R.O.Y.G.B.I.V.
A poem in Fence
~ Twelve Forecasts
More flash fiction for BOMB Magazine
~ How to Look at an Image, or a Black Hole
Essay accompanying the exhibition Semblance & Shadows Like Anxiety by Liza Eurich and Colin Miner at Stride Gallery, Calgary
~ Obliteration Ritual for Katie Lyle
Fictional portrait for Katie Lyle’s exhibition Why Do I Hear the Ocean in My Ear? at The Loon, Toronto
~ Strange New Health
Fiction for the exhibition Strange New Health by Yi Xin Tong at Katzman Contemporary, Toronto
~ How To Tame A Fly, or: Some Unsolicited Commentary on Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon’s ‘A Space for Looking is a Space for Listening’
Exhibition review for Charcuterie
~ Ieva Miseviciute: Character Studies of Primeval Life Forms
Artist feature for Mousse
~ Everybody’s Talking about Bone Broth
Essay for Laugh Magazine, RCA London
~ Allison Hrabluik: The Splits
Exhibition review for C Magazine
~ East Georgia’s Shameless Loiterers
Poem for the Somewhat Urgent Series, edited by Steffanie Ling
~ Mystery Dust
An essay on the work of Liz Magor for The Capilano Review’s digital chapbook series ti-TCR
~ I Just Want To Talk About How I Just Want To Dance With You
A series of pamphlets on dance and criticism organized by Alexa Mardon and Brynn McNab at Unit/Pitt Projects, Vancouver
~ Hygiene Tricks & The People At Schick
Review of the exhibition Hypnic Jerk by Kara Hansen for The Bartleby Review
Forthcoming June 2025
Sarabande Books
Pre-order direct from the publisher (US only) ︎
Pre-order from your nearest independent bookstore (US and Canada) ︎
A cheeky debut of short fictions exploring the pitfalls and minor triumphs of the creative process.
Equal parts melody and malaise, The Longest Way to Eat a Melon charts the activities of a cast of speakers who all grapple in their own ways with what it takes to conjure a self in the midst of discordance. A brain argues with a non-brain about how to remain productive from a place of exhaustion; two supernaturally inclined twins named Han are separated at birth; and an emerging artist paralyzed by possibility considers how best to transform a melon into a breakthrough work of art. Incorporating elements of fable, surrealism, satire, and art and cultural criticism, these stories have a playful peculiarity to them, an interweaving of self-deprecation and curiosity, of woe and hope, of absurdity and humanity. Reader, you will want to savor every bite.
Read "A Brief History of Feeling" from The Longest Way to Eat a Melon in BOMB ︎
Chapbooks
Self-published in 2016 by Blank Cheque Press, a small press I ran out of my home/studio between Vancouver and Toronto from 2015-2020 (lately out of print)
Other Selected Writing
2024
~ On Rochelle Goldberg’s Sun Moon StarsA review of Rachelle Goldberg’s show at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver for C Mag (forthcoming)
~ More-Than-Unpaid Work: On Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill’s M*****A review of Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill’s show at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver for Le Chauffage
2023
~ Night Work
Selections from a new long-form project published in Asia Art Archive’s online journal Like a Fever
~ A Woman Suffering
Short story in the new issue of Echolocation Magazine, Toronto
~ baby voices
Poem written to accompany the group exhibition, Inside voices, please at nap projects, Vancouver
2022
~ Five Cricket Songs (after Umico Niwa)
Poems written to accompany Umico Niwa’s exhibition, Neighbourly Pest, at Tilling, Montréal
~ soothsay
Exhibition text for Gabi Dao & geetha thurairajah at Centre Clark, Montréal
2021
~ Elementary Brioche
Short story for Minority Vibration, a special issue of The Puritan, guest-edited by Sheung-King
~ from Fifty Times You Leave Your Lover
Poetic response to Mira Dayal’s artist book, Hair Biography, for the ee!
~ Laurie Kang: Story of the Gut
Catalogue essay to accompany the exhibition Unfixed: Laurie Kang and Chris Curreri at Gordon Smith Gallery, North Vancouver
2020
~ Napping Against Capitalism
Short story for the group exhibition The Pandemic is a Portal at SFU Galleries, Vancouver
~ The Perfect Crime
Fictional accompaniment to Erdem Taşdelen's public billboard project, Vicissitudes, at Mercer Union, Toronto
2019
~ Cute, Good-Looking, Funny, Sweet
Essay on the kind of art that is suspiciously easy to digest for Mousse
~ Lizzie’s Laborufluvs
Short story for the exhibition Disputed Bodies at Trinity Square Video, Toronto
~ Four Poems
Light text accoutrements for Sorry, I’m Busy, an exhibition of Capricorn artists at Support Projects, London, Ontario
2018
~ A Brief History of Feeling
Flash fiction for BOMB Magazine
~ "Wanted: Abject Dreamers for New Study of the Inner Ear $15/hr"
A Kijiji ad for please teach me how to swim, an online project organized by Untitled Art Society, Calgary
~ The Picture Files
Flash fiction for the virtual artist project Anna Hawkins: Fall Fell Felt hosted by Untitled Art Society, Calgary
~ R.O.Y.G.B.I.V.
A poem in Fence
2017
~ Twelve Forecasts
More flash fiction for BOMB Magazine
~ How to Look at an Image, or a Black Hole
Essay accompanying the exhibition Semblance & Shadows Like Anxiety by Liza Eurich and Colin Miner at Stride Gallery, Calgary
~ Obliteration Ritual for Katie Lyle
Fictional portrait for Katie Lyle’s exhibition Why Do I Hear the Ocean in My Ear? at The Loon, Toronto
2016
~ Strange New Health
Fiction for the exhibition Strange New Health by Yi Xin Tong at Katzman Contemporary, Toronto
~ How To Tame A Fly, or: Some Unsolicited Commentary on Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon’s ‘A Space for Looking is a Space for Listening’
Exhibition review for Charcuterie
~ Ieva Miseviciute: Character Studies of Primeval Life Forms
Artist feature for Mousse
~ Everybody’s Talking about Bone Broth
Essay for Laugh Magazine, RCA London
~ Allison Hrabluik: The Splits
Exhibition review for C Magazine
~ East Georgia’s Shameless Loiterers
Poem for the Somewhat Urgent Series, edited by Steffanie Ling
~ Mystery Dust
An essay on the work of Liz Magor for The Capilano Review’s digital chapbook series ti-TCR
~ I Just Want To Talk About How I Just Want To Dance With You
A series of pamphlets on dance and criticism organized by Alexa Mardon and Brynn McNab at Unit/Pitt Projects, Vancouver
~ Hygiene Tricks & The People At Schick
Review of the exhibition Hypnic Jerk by Kara Hansen for The Bartleby Review